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RECONSTRUCTION. 



SPEECH 



i&SL. 



HOK RALPH HILL, OF INDIANA, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 17, 1866. 



The House, as in Committee of the Whole on the 
state of the Union, having under consideration the 
President's annual message — 

Mr. HILL said: 

Mr. Speaker: I thank God, sir, that the 
Thirty- Ninth Congress of the United States 
of America has been permitted to assemble 
in this magnificent temple of liberty, and 
under the broad folds of that sacred ban- 
ner of American nationality, now a thousand 
times more hallowed by its baptism in the 
blood of American freemen fallen in the dread 
struggle for national existence. I thank God, 
sir, that, despite the gigantic efforts of the vast 
horde of parricidal hands and traitorous hearts 
that have sought the destruction of this great 
fabric reared by the immortal of our land and 
race, the nation's ensign still proudly floaty, 
not only above us, but over every portion of the 
nation's domain, and commands a new respect 
from every nation on this earth. When, in 
sorrowful retrospect, I recall the scenes enacted 
in this Hall but five short years ago, when 
treason stalked triumphant and insulting, and 
loyal men, with bated breath and thejr faces 
in the dust, begged as a boon that traitors would 
but name some terms on which»they would 
consent to spare the nation's life, urltil, spurned 
with indignity and contempt in their low dis- 
grace, the vast loyal North rose in its manhood 
and stood erect, with the blood of every free 
loyal heart pledged to wipe out this foul stain ; 
and when I remember the deep maledictions 
which were heaped on the heads of those who 
dared to raise a hand to repel the blow aimed 
at the nation's heart, even by those, I am 
pained to say, who held seats here by choice 
of the constituencies of the free North: and 
these failing, the funereal wails chanted from 
these seats over the fancied grave of this 
great Republic, where the wish of the singer 
was but father to the thought he sang; and 
when, sir, I behold the integrity and perpetuity 
of the Republic, as I fondly hope, vindicated 
by the blood and valor of a million loyal hearts, 
its strength made terrible to all foreign foes, 
the last traitor disarmed, and those lately so 
defiant and insulting now begging permission 
to return here, whence they so scoflingly re- 
tired, again, sir, I thank God and take courage. 

I need not say to you, sir, nor to the mem- 
bers of this House, that upon this Congress is 
devolved responsibilities the most weighty that 
have ever fallen upon any deliberative assem- 



bly. It was for the Congress of 1776 to plant 
the seed of free government upon this conti- 
nent. It was for the Convention of 1787 to nur- 
ture into proper shape the growing twig, and, 
sir, it is ours to bind up the ravages of storm, and 
see that no sound limb be severed from its fair 
proportions and that no worm or rottenness shall 
gnaw away its heart. Thirty millions of peo- 
ple, directly interested in each day's word and 
act of ours, are intently watching the program 
we may make; and from across the sea, axe 
turned toward us the anxious eyes of millions 
upon millions more, whose hearts are trem- 
bling between hope and fear as our hands are 
shaping the new life of the Republic. The 
smoke and thunder of the contest have passed 
by. The honored soldier of the Lepublic, 
crowned with the laurels of a grateful country, 
and none were ever brighter, rests from t'ne 
toilsome march and deadly strife and mingles 
his tears with the nation's upon the grave of his 
buried comrade. The hour of the .-talesman 
has come; and fearful will be the responsibility 
of him who, blinded by party zeal or -personal 
ambition or hate, shall be found wanting in litis 
his country's most important crisis. I cannot 
hope, even, sir, that no error will be committed, 
but I can confidently expect that every true pa- 
triot will, with the utmost honesty of intentlOJO 
and singleness of purpose. BO shape all efforts 
here that they shall tend to the restoration of» 
free republican government overall the \ asl her- 
itage bequeathed us by the fathers of the nation. 
The great curse and crime of our age exists 
no more. Slavery was the most damning Stain 

that ever blotted the fair escutcheon of free 
government. It was an excrescence, a para- 
site, that fastened upon the Government and-t'e.d 
upon its vitals. It was the poisonous ('pas. 
whose breath infected everything within its 

reach. It was rank ami fulsome in the halls 
of legislation, and molded and shaped law? 
for the government of the Republic favorable 

to the most absolute and shameless de-put isiji. 
Statesmen of intellect most gigantic were sub- 
sidized by its omnipotent power, and basely 
prostituted the great abilities which God had 
given them to foster and protect an incubus 
that pressed with mountain weight anon the 
noblest impulses of the human soul. It coiled 
its slimy length upon the bench when- jurists 
sat, in courts where the weak BOUght protection 
from the Btrong, where justice WBB svmboled 
with scales of even hand, and with serpent 






guile, it hissed forth decrees and judgments 
which will eternally disgrace the jurisprudence 
of the age, and which shattered the confidence 
of mankind in the integrity of all human tri- 
bunals. It was rife in the political arena, and 
with every conceivable appliance wrought upon 
the uh imate arbiter of contending political fac- 
tions, the ballot-box. Nay. it even invaded the 
sacred desk, and if the lips of its occupant 
were touched with a live coal from the altar of 
the living God. and burning words swelled in 
his breast in behalf of a downtrodden race, for 
whom the blood of the Son of God had been shed, 
its damp breath quenched the kindling flame 
and turned to smoldering ashes the heaven-born 
impulses of his heart. Success but increased 
its arrogance, and while at first it asked but to 
be permitted to live, it grew to claim that noth- 
ing that opposed it should survive, until at 
last if seized the nation by the throat, and like 
the falded adder turned to pierce the benefac- 
tor that had warmed it into life; and in that 
struggle it has died, and I now here but speak 
the epitaph I would write upon its infamous 
^nd eternal grave over which we are to recon- 
struct the fabric of free government. 

In the discussion of the momentous ques- 
tions that are now presented for our solution, 
it has been contended by some gentlemen that 
the Si airs lately in rebellion, and in and by 
authority of the people by which war was waged 
against, the Government of the United States, 
were out of the Union to all practical intents 
and purposes, or that they were '"dead car- 
casses lying within the Union." This, sir, I 
regard as the expression of the most extreme 
views of gentlemen on this side of the House. 
The views of gentlemen on the other side, as 
expressed by the general tenor of their ar- 

fumeiii. are quite on the opposite extreme. 
'hey strenuously insist that those States are in 
the Union, with full right of representation, 
and in all respects npoti an equal footing with 
all the other States. In support of these ex- 
treme views, and in all the varying shades of 
Opinion that have been expressed in this wide 
diBCU sipn, I think all possible changes have 
been rung upon the phrases "States in the 
Union" and " States out of the Union." Now, 
sir, 1 am not sure that the country would not 
have l>.-en more benefited by the vast ability 
and learning that have been displayed in these 
discussions, had the effort been directed to ex- 
isting facts which all admit, and to the inven- 
tion and application of a remedy for evils so 

great and manifest, which none deny, rather 
than to the establishment of preconceived the- 

ories, which 1 apprehend would lead to some 

consequences on cither hand not acceptable to 

their advocates. 

'If thai anomaly, scarcely Bupposable in the 
phv, e ;il world, can exisl in the political, of be- 
ing neither in or out, I think we have its illustra- 
tion in the existing condition of these States. 

What is a State? I go not back to ( ici in. 
nor Solon, nor other eminent statesmen of an- 
tiquity for my answer. Highlyas I esteem the 
eminent abilities of Grotius. and I'uffcndorf. 
and other great writers upon the law of nations. 



I think the light which they shed upon this 
practical question of to-day will be found to 
be but feeble. Scarcely a resemblance exists 
between the States of Europe, upon the consti- 
tutions of which they displayed their vast learn- 
ing, and the American States, whose condition 
should absorb the attention of the American 
statesman now. They wrote of kingdoms, and 
empires, and of the relations of independent 
sovereign Powers to each other. We have to 
do with republican governments, each to some 
extent supreme within its own territorial limits, 
associated together under a common superior 
Government, and together forming a nation 
among the nations of the earth. A State, in 
the American meaning of that term, conveys 
the idea of a political power, existing within 
certain boundaries, having certain powers of 
local legislation, having certain rights in the 
General Government, and holding constitu- 
tional relations to that Government. Each 
State, in the full sense of that term, and in the 
full exercise of its prerogatives, has among other 
rights the right of representation in Congress, 
the right to elect its own Governor and Legis- 
lature, the right to make, alter, and amend its 
constitution, prescribe the qualifications of those 
who shall make its laws, and to legislate in what- 
soever manner it may please, so that it violate 
no provision of the superior law — the Consti- 
tution of the United States. But the genius of 
our Government knows no such thing as a State, 
within the territorial limits of the United States, 
foreign to or independent of the Government 
of the United States. Hence to be a State in 
the Union, in the popular and legal sense of 
that term, implies the possession of all the rights 
which characterize a State, and their full exer- 
cise and enjoyment; and to be a State out of 
the Union would imply the full exercise and 
enjoyment of all privileges and powers charac- 
terizing a State independent of and foreign 
to the Constitution and Government of the 
United States. 

Now . sir, let us look at the historical facts of 
the case we are considering. It may be well to 
pause in the heated discussion, which the rapid 
recurrence of startling events naturally engen- 
ders, and take our bearings, and see clearly 
where is our latitude, what our longitude, and 
whither we are drifting. 1 shall not detain this 
House by an elaborate rehearsal of details, or 
a reiteration of transactions, which, alas! are 
already too vividly impressed upon the minds 

of all." In L860and L861, eleven States, through 

the exercise of t he ordinary machinery of their 

then existing Siate governments, and to the 

utmost extent that Slate authority could, by 
legislative, executive, and conventional enact- 
ment, attempted in abrogate all the relations 
existing between those States and the Govern- 
ment of the United States. Their Representa- 
tives and Senators in these Halls, while on their 
consciences were resting oaths most solemn, 
stopped at no perjury, but with souls as black 
as violated vows could paint them, with haughty 
insolence strode hence to treason's camp, there 
to fan the kindling dame, to goad on those 
most daring to greater desperation, to override 



tlie hesitating, and to crush out by brutal force 
the few who dared to raise a voice or hand to 
resist the infernal schemes they were then con- 
cocting against no wrong to them or theirs, but 
against a Government whose sole fault was 
that it had ever been too prodigal of its indul- 
gence to their outrages and oppression. They 
confederated together as States, and with all 
the form and solemnity of a pretended govern- 
ment created by such confederation, they ar- 
»ayed an almost resistless force against the 
>ower of this Government. 

Sir, I pause before the awful facts which 
paint the history of the dread conflict which 
succeeded — facts which mark the four years of 
the Administration of our lamented, martyred, 
and immortalized Chief Magistrate as the era 
of the world's great actions; which in sublime 
grandeur stand alone in the world's great rec- 
ord the evidence of what free men can do and 
dare for the existence of a Government where 
man alone is sovereign ; and also other facts, 
which, in like solitude, stand the evidence of 
the deep degradation of infamy to which trea- 
son could descend to found a nation in this 
age whose corner-stone should be a despotism 
at which Russia blushes, and at which people, 
whom these men call barbarous, stand aghast. 

Now, sir, while the tread of hostile armies 
shook the nation from the Potomac to the Rio 
Grande, while day after day forces which trea- 
son had assembled, which these confederated 
States, acting through State machinery, had 
called into the field, were marching against and 
meeting in deadly conflict the hosts of loyal 
men which the sole purpose of preserving the. 
Government of their fathers had called from 
the workshop, the counting-room, and the plow ; 
while loyal blood, shed by traitors' hands, was 
flowing like water all over the land which trea- 
son had polluted, will it be pretended by any 
man, on this floor or elsewhere, that these re- 
bellious States were entitled to — nay, were but 
enjoying — their rights as States in the Ameri- 
can Union*? Will this other proposition, legiti- 
mately following as it seems to me, be claimed 
as sound, that in the exercise of their legitimate 
State rights, as citizens of the States rebelling, 
these rebel soldiers who were but acting in obe- 
dience to the sovereign authority of confed- 
erate State power, might have held an election 
for members of this House while their hands 
so reeked with the blood of your slaughtered 
soldiers that they crimsoned the ballot which 
elected their Representatives who should con- 
trol your legislation here ? That the vanquished 
army of General Lee, retreating from the field 
of Antietam, might have retrieved its fallen for- 
tunes by holding an election, pursuant to State 
authority, and sending, men upon this floor 
who should have withheld supplies from your 
pursuing force? 

Sir, without pursuing further inquiries which 
can tend to but one result in all candid minds, 
I take it as an established proposition that at 
some time, and to some extent, the rights and 
powers of the States in rebellion have been 
impaired. Have those rights and powers been 
fully restored? If so, when, and how? These, 



sir, are grave inquiries, and it would be high 
presumption in me to assume that 1 pp i 1 

the ability to give the unquestionably correct 
answer. But, six, with all their gravity, they 
are questions which we must meet. They are 
upon US : and it will have been the performance 
of the whole duty of the men who t 
this Congress if, with the single purpose of 
preserving by legislation the fruits gathered by, 
unequaled heroism, blind to all party preju- 
dices, and ignoring all personal ambition, we 
shall have given them the consideration of the 
combined ability of those who must decide, 
Jt is in this spirit that I propose to meet them, 
and with the humblest deference to thos 
whose opinions I may seem to differ, 1 but dis- 
charge a duty which I feel incumbent upon me 
if any feeble word of mine can assist to a right 
decision. 

Sir, it has been contended by some that the 
very fact of the surrender of the armed forces 
of the rebellion to the forces of the Govern- 
ment, of itself restored the States engaged in 
rebellion to their full rights in the government 
of the country ; that those who but yesterday 
had for four years stood in armed array, 
to the power of the nation that was seeking to 
subdue them, might, by the mere act of surren- 
dering to the power which they could no longer 
resist, resume all rights which those against 
whom they had been contending possessed, 
atid to-day, though prisoners of war. stand as 
equals with the victors at the ballot-box and 
in the councils of the nation. That this isnot 
true, if what 1 have said in regard to their rights 
while in a state of kostilty is correct, is too 
palpable to require argument, because, if they 
could not legimately exercise these rights 
while in a state of armed hostility, it was be- 
cause of some legal objection which could not 
be removed by simply overpowering them, but 
required some other action for that purpose. 
But to illustrate further, if it be true that the 
cessation of hostilities restored their full rights 
as States, then it would necessarily follow that 
if, finding fortune going against them in the 
field, they should ascertain that enough would 
be found in the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives to unite with them in support of 
their policy to render its success certain— 
a supposition which all gentlemen upon this 
floor know is entirely absurd in fact, but which 
will serve me as an illustration— what should 
be more natural than that in the exercise of 
their hypothetical rights in these Halls, they 
should, through their State machinery, .-end 
their Senators and Representatives here, and 
through their action they should obtain a re- 
versal of the arbitrament of arms, and thus, 
not being able to commit murder upon the 
nation, should accomplish its suicide. 

It is contended thai the individual a 
liable to punishment, and that th 
the States are not affected. How is this indi- 
vidual liability to be enforced? Wearetold, and 

all will agree, that it can only be done tl 
the judicial tribunals of the 

charge must be preferred against the individual 

in a manner known to the law and consistent 



G 



for their incalculable losses, to which the na- 
tion's honor is most solemnly pledged? 

Sir, he who stands upon nice quibbles and 
technical interpretations of the great principles 
of our Constitution, who argues of the great 
events through which we have been and still 
are passing, from the stand-point of an ex- 
perienced advocate before an inferior court, 
should come up higher, and see that a might} 7 
revolution, whose force is not yet all spent, 
has been sweeping over us, and that in that 
revolution it has been developed that there is 
a great free North, with twenty millions of warm 
and loyal hearts, who have an interest in this 
Government, which must not be ignored. He 
should remember that for years preceding 
this rebellion, to the earnest anti-slavery men 
of the North the southern States had been more 
forbidden ground than the empire of Japan, 
and that there, for them, awaited the coat of tar 
and feathers, or the gibbet upon the nearest 
tree. He should further remember that the 
Constitution was ordained to "form a more 
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domes- 
tic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posteri- 
ty," and that the interests of those who have sac- 
rificed so much for the preservation of the Gov- 
ernment must not now be postponed for thegrat- 
ification of thosewho have sought its destruction. 

We are told that there is but one condition 
that should be made a prerequisite to repre- 
sentation Irom those late rebellious States, and 
that is that the claimant of the seat should be 
a loyal man. Let us look at the practical work- 
ings of this theory. What is loyalty? No law 
deiincs it, and even the oath prescribed by 
Congress as a test for admission here is now 
openly declared by those who most strenuously 
insist upon the admission of these represent- 
atives as unconstitutional and void. How will 
you apply the test? Will this House sit in judg- 
ment upon each particular claimant, and by 
evidence pro and con determine his standing 
in this respect ? Will it inquire into his private 
as well as public utterances, review his minute 
us well as prominent acts, for the purpose of 
a certaining what may be his secret opinions? 
For it is the intentions of the heart, and not 
merely the language of the mouth, that, must fix 
his character. And when all evidence is heard,) 
ii ig at last but the majority that must decide, 

and the i.-[ of individual Loyalty would come 

to b • but a plank in a political platform. And 
if this condition is to be applied, shall ii be 
alone applicable to representatives from the 

relieilious Slates, or be made alike applicable 
to all ■' Ami shall it be a condition-precedent 

onl. or maj it not be a condition-subsequent 
as well : and may not the test be applied to de- 
termine whether we, who now sit here, shall be 
per nil ted Longer to remain, with quite as much 
propriety as to determine whet her those now out 
shall be permitted to come in? And if appli- 
cable to all, when will its application cease? 
Will the principle have spent its force with the 
present Congre j? Even if it should, 1 very 
much fear me that with the full representation 



of the southern States on this floor, the further 
term of service of the venerable gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, at least, would be short indeed. 
I cannot but regard this principle, though spe- 
cious and plausible in theory, as most mischiev- 
ous, indeed ruinous, in practice. 

But it is said that taxation and representatitm 
go hand in hand, and that without representa- 
tion here the Government has no constitutional 
authority to tax the southern people. I can 
now call to mind no one who has had the bold- 
ness yet, upon this floor, to claim that the entire 
people of the rebellious States should be ad-' 
mitted at once to the full exercise of the elect- 
ive franchise to the same extent as if no rebel- 
lion had taken place, or that the same freedom 
to select whom they may please to represent 
them here exists now as then. Whatever may 
be the fact, it has not yet been publicly stated 
that Jefferson Davis or John C. Breckinridge 
would be welcomed as Representatives upon this 
floor. But, sir, what is representation in the 
sense in which these gentlemen apply it thus? 
Is it the choice by the few, who might be able 
to truthfully swear that they had not borne arms 
against the Government, of men to fill these 
vacant seats? Or is it the selection of men, 
under executive or other dictation, whose par- 
ticular principles the voter loathes? And is 
it for this empty shadow of representation that 
those disfranchised are to barter to you the 
right to impose taxation, and with this are they 
to be told that they are receiving full constitu- 
tional rights of the citizens of States possessing 
their full power ? Who are the men to-day that 
represent the true sentiment and feeling of these 
States? Are they those who fought for, or 
against, the Government of your country ? Why, 
sir, the old times seem to becoming back upon 
us when in the other end of the Capitol we can 
hear language like the following even from the 
Senator of a State which did not succeed in 
getting fully into the rebellion : 

" Senators seem to think that they have the whole 
power over this matter; bat they are mistaken. Tho 
power rests elsewhere; and I announce that thiswhole 
matter can lie legally and constitutionally settled in 
ten days, ay, iii one day. The third section of the 
econd article of the Constitution provides that tho 
President shall, from time to time, give to the Con- 
gress information of the state oi'the l' nil in, and recom- 
mend to their consideration sucb measures as be shall 
judge neoessoryor expedient. Here, t L r. is a provis- 
ion in the Constitution which rei|uirc!*||ipf 1'resident 
to communicate to tin- two Booses ofCowgress infor- 
mation as to the state of the Union, and to recommend 
to them such measures as he shall deem prqper and 
Licnt. What docs this require him to do? Kc 
has to ;, -certain w ho composesthe two Bouses of Con- 
[tishi right, [t is his constitutional function 
toasoertain who < >n titutethe two Houses ofCon- 
. The members of the Senate who are in favor 
of the admission of the southern Senators could got 
into a con. l.i \ e with thosesouthern Senators any dan 
and they would constitute a majority of the Senate. 
Tho President of the United States has the constitu- 
tional option— it is his function; it is his p owe:- ; it is 
in , i -hi ; and 1 would advise turn to i sereise it— h* 

has the right at. any day to ascertain, win re there arc 

different bodies! members of this Sonat i cont< tiding, 
which is the true Senate. If the southern members 
and the,- who am for admitting them constitute il 
majority of the whole Senate, the President has a 
right— and, by the Eternal, lie ought to < xercise that 
forthwith, to-morrow, or any other daj — to rec- 
ognize the Opposition here and thesouthcru members 
as a majority of the Senate." 



The crack of the slave-driver's whip is dis- 
tinctly perceptible here, and its echo is beard 
all over the .South, and among those who in the 
North have been spies in your camp during all 
this war, but one utterance of which, from the 
Chicago Times, I will obtrude upon the notice 
of this House. It says : 

"If the Rump Congress shall not speedily abandon 
its seditious, revolutionary, and lawless practices: it' 
it shall persist in excluding the representatives of 
eleven States from their rightful seat.-, and in exer- 
cising the powers of the Congress of the United 
States, we do not hesitate to declare that it will be- 
come the solemn duty of President Johnsou to con- 
stitute himself the Cromwell of the time, and dissolve 
the Rump by military power." 

To-day, sir, men are fleeing from the South 
for their lives, for no other crime than that they 
have been true to your Government ; and to- 
day, through large portions of those States, the 
most hated banner that floats upon the breeze 
under the whole heavens is the starry emblem 
that hangs above your head. Sir, shall we give 
representation here to this prevalent sentiment 
Of disloyalty as the basis of our right to impose 
taxation? Taxation for what? To what pur- 
pose would these men lay taxes upon your prop- 
erty and their own? Would it lie to pay your 
debt incurred in their subjugation? Would it 
be to pay pensions to those whom their own 
hands had made widows? Or, sir. would it not 
rather be to pay their own debt incurred in their 
treasonable but vain attempt at the destruction 
of your Government? I warn, I beseech gen- 
tlemen upon this floor to beware how they yield 
to this insidious doctrine. It is but the wiiy 
voice of the serpent in your Eden, which, under 
the flattering promise of good, can bring you 
only evil. The whole current history of affairs 
in those States shows that the same spirit of 
hostility is rife there now as existed during the 
conflict of arms. If the principle, that the 
right of taxation can only exist by virtue of 
representation, is applicable to the condition of 
those States, then the distinction between trea- 
son and loyalty ceases to exist, and your Gov- 
ernment becomes but another name for anarchy . 
Instead of having subdued the rebellion you 
have but surrendered to it, and transferred the 
conflict from the field to these Halls, with fear- 
ful disadvantage to yourselves. 

Sir, I would not delay the return of repre- 
sentatives from those States one hour beyond 
the period when they can be admitted here 
with safety to the Government. They would 
not more gladly than myself hail the auspicious 
moment when they should be received as mem- 
bers of this body could I be assured that in 
that act no danger was foreboded to the Repub- 
lic. I look, sir, to no partisan aggrandizement, 
and shape my course on these great issues with 
no reference to mere partisan success. I stand 
upon the vastly higher ground that the welfare 
of the Government is superior to all party con- 
siderations. To us^hat welfare is intrusted. 
and we shall be unworthy of that high trust if 
clamor from any quarter against our action or 
inaction here shall swerve us from the steady 
course which statesmen should pursue. We 
are told that three months and more of this 
session have now passed and we have brought 



forth no plan of restoration. Sir. for thirty 
years the plot of the destruction of the < roveru- 
ment was maturing. For four dark and terri- 
ble years all the horrid enginery of war was 
called in aid of the execution of that plot ; and 
since that has failed nearly one year of quasi 
government and semi-anarchy has complicated 
rather than elucidated the questions w 
decide. Is it just that we shall be reproached 
with inactivity because in three short months 
we have not solved problems more intricate 
than were ever before presented for solution to 
any human assembly? And that, too, when 
each day' s history was but developing some new 
phase of those problems and adding to them 
more complications and embarrassments. Sir, 
whatever may be the desire of others, the loyal 
American people desire no haste in this matter. 
With infinite joy they would hail, from any 
source, a plan which should so restore political 
rights to those States as to insure domestic 
tranquillity and promote the general welfare. 
As yet, sir, they have seen no such plan. The 
practical workings of the course pursued since 
the surrender of the armies of the rebellion, 
unexpectedly and unforeseen as I most ear- 
nestly insist, unfortunately has been but to 
encourage and develop hostility to the Govern- 
ment. In sorrow, sir. I utter it, but my un- 
willing conviction is that the experiment has 
failed. On the 3d of the present month the 
Governorof Tennessee, theStatemo-t favorably 
regarded in this House and by the country, was 
compelled, by revolutionary action of members 
of the Legislature of that State, hostile to this 
Government as well as to its own loyal people, 
to issue a proclamation, from which I read the 
following extracts : 

"It is my painful duty to announce that civil gov- 
ernment is again imperiled in the State of Tennes- 
see. The events of the last three weeks gii 
serious apprehensions that a large portion <>f vat 
people have not sufficiently recovered from the de- 
moralizing effects of the late rebellion t,. enable 
them to appreciate the blessings of peace; thai their 
passions have not sufficiently cooled to enable them 
to avoid a relapse into anarchy or military rule. 

"A small minority of twenty-one members of the 
House of Representatives, by factious and revolu- 
tionary proceedings, have succeeded in breaking up 
the Legislature and paralyzing the State government. 
I characterize this conduct as revolutionary because 
it was violative of the spirit of the constitution and 
laws, and arrested the machinery ol the Stati gov- 
ernment as effectually as if the Bame had been done 
by force of arms. 

" They have been able, under th» construction of 
parliamentary law which prevailed in the ti 
reduce it below what was held to be a quorum for the 
transaction of business, and the great body of the 
members of both Houses have -one to their homes, 
and legislal ion has entirely oeased. 

" When an important measure of State policy was 
proposed, a measure referredBto and n dutj h I 

upon this Legislature by th4 amended constitution. 
they either withdrew from theii mained 

and refused to answer to their names when oalled, 

iker holding that a member in 
Easing to answer fl is nol prejenl ounted 
a< part of a quordm. After worn ingthe mi 
this wav for Beveral weeks, and alter the i -liga- 
tions of the convention of the 22d Februai 
have publicly announced their secession from the 
Legislature, through the newspapers, in a document 
that will not fail to remind its roadew of the address 
of the Legislature of l s 'd. who transferred the State 
to the southern confederacy. 

"The pretext for this legislative rebellion was a 
proposition to di» barge the duty imposed upon the 



8 



Legislature by the ninth section of the schedule to 
the amended constitution, which provides for ' the 
limitation of the elective franchise' by this Legisla- 
ture. There was nothing new or startling in this 
measure. From the earliest inception of the idea of 
reorganizing a State government upon the ruins of 
the rebellion, the policy of disfranchising those who 
had lately destroyed the State government, and at- 
tempted to destroy the national Government, was 
deemed a necessity, and was adopted and rigidly 
executed. In the election held on the 22d of Febru- 
ary, 1865, upon the adoption of the amended constitu- 
tion, rebels were all disfranchised by an oath which 
■ required every voter to swear that he was ' an enemy 
of the so-called' confederate States.' 

" This same course was pursued in the election for 
Governor and members of the General Assembly in 
March, 18G5. The military governor naturally be- 
lieved that those who had wantonly destroyed the 
government were not the proper persons to rebuild 
it, or to administer it when reestablished. This policy 
and principle of disfranchisement was a feature of 
the amended constitution approved by the qualified 
voters of the State. No subject has been more thor- 
oughly discussed and understood by all classes for the 
last year than this subject of disfranchising the dis- 
loyal. Several of the seceding members were also 
members of the convention which adopted it into the 
schedule, and sustained it before the people, and 
accepted office under it, and are therefore estopped 
from denying its binding force. All of them had been 
elected under a law or proclamation disfranchising 
rebels. The pretense that the measure was sprung upon 
them suddenly is therefore most manifestlya subter- 
fuge to cover up the attempt at disorganization. 

"The resigning members appeal to their constitu- 
ents to sustain them, and most of them are announced 
as candidates for reelection to the places they have 
just made vacant under a pledge, of course, again to 
withdraw from their scats, and again to break up the 
Legislature. This discloses the whole plan of thecon- 
spiracy. They ask their constituents to approve their 
act, and to send them back to repeat it. This will 
place their constituents in the attitude of disorgan- 
izers, commit them to a rebellion against the State 
government, and render futile any attempt to fill the 
vacancies by writs of election, as the same routine 
would be repeated. The danger to the State is there- 
fore imminent. Should the civil government fail, the 
military authorities will take the control of the State, 
and it is not likely that the General Government will, 
at an early day, permit a people who will have dis- 
played stu-li incapacity for self-government to attempt 
another State organization. Nor is it likely, if the 
effort should be permitted, that the different divis- 
ions of the State will agree upon a new constitution, 
and discord and a separation may follow." * * 

"Our political prospects, too, are severely injured. 
By the acts of a rebellious population we have lost 
our representation in the council of the nation. Our 
Sena t ui's and Representatives are in Washington ask- 
ing admission to seats in Congress. That body is 
watching all our movements with a view of deter- 
mining whether wo have an established government or 
not, and whether those Senators have been Ben! there 
by a government capable of maintaining its existence 
and authority. They may now conclude that our 
people are not in a temper for self-government. Cer- 
tainly the opponents of our representation will be 
furnished by our present condition with an argument 
against our admission. 

" \or i- the moral effect upon thereputation of our 
State and people leas to be deplored, A large port ion 
of onr people, just out of rebellion, are professing re- 
constructed loyalty, "bile a portion of their repre- 
sentatives display not only a rebellious spirit, but a 
disregard tor the solaun obligations of legislators, 
and are unmindful of Mai dignity and sense of honor 
which should always oharaoti rize i !><• statesman." 

Sir. if ihis is reconstructed Loyalty, may I lea- 
ven save this nation from its further exhibition, 

Sir, as I have already said, ii 1ms been al- 
leged thai tto plan id' restoration 1ms been 
brought forward. I shall not' display tin' im- 
pudence of presenting one myself. I have 
already indicated what, in my opinion, ought 
not to be done, and the general principles 



which ought to control in presenting measures 
for the purpose of restoration. 

Notwithstanding the three months and more 
already consumed in this session, I think de- 
velopments are not yet sufficient to indicate 
what should be the details. To the committee 
in whose hands the Senate and this House 
have confided this subject I look not entirely 
without hope. I see upon it men who in the 
darkest hours of the late struggle stood immov- 
ably by the Government. They may have 
turned traitors now, but I shall need further 
evidence before I can yield to that conviction. 

Sir, if the four years of desolating war were 
all in vain; if the resistance to armed rebellion 
was all one grand mistake ; if the achievements 
of your gallant soldiers, more glorious than any 
history had hitherto recorded, were all without 
a purpose or an object ; if the brave thousands 
for whom widows and mothers still weep in un- 
availing woe went down to dishonored graves; 
if, as the sole fruit of all this mighty revolu- 
tion, it is developed at last that your boasted 
republican Government is but a farce, and that 
in its administration no distinction exists be- 
tween those who point the dagger at its vitals, 
and those who lay their lives upon its altar, 
then open wide these doors, and welcome with 
warm embrace those now clamoring for admis- 
sion here. Start not back from the grasp of 
their stained hands, though they drip with 
your brother's blood; for know that they but 
assert their rights, and that it was your folly 
that your brother's blood was shed. 

But if, "on the other hand, your appeal to the 
brave and patriotic millions to array themselves 
in serried ranks, and march to almost certain 
death to save from destruction mankind's last 
hope for free government, was not one stupen- 
dous lie ; if you would not turn to eternal shame 
the deeds of valor which are now your highest 
glory; if you would not cover with infamy the 
graves, yetsacred, where the flesh of your fallen 
kindred has scarcely yet moldered back to its 
mother earth ; if you would not stamp the fratri- 
cidal mark of Cain upon the maimed ami scarred 
survivors, then, in the name of the martyred 
dead and mutilated Hying ; in the name of the 
great loyal North, whose bloul and treasure 
were poured out like water in the nation's cause*; 
in the name of the millions struggling upward 
all over this green earth, whose fervent prayers 

went up to he;i\ en through all the dread strug- 
gle that your armies might sueeeed. 1 implore 
the members of this House that in this last 
grand ael, ol'lhisgreat drama, tiny so shape this 
work of reconstruction that the valor of our 
Army shall not have all been wasted, and that 
the nation shall not lose by Legislation here, all 
that it so gloriously achieved by its armies in 
the field ; but, 

"With malibe toward none; with charily for all; 
with firmness in the riu'lit as God gives us to see tho 
right, let us strive to finish tire work we arein; to bind 
op tin- nation's wounds; to oare for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow, and for his 
orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just ami lasting peace among ourselves, and with all 
nations." 



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N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 



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